A few weeks ago, my wife, Cathy, and I vacationed in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida. While wading into the surf, we watched pelicans dive bomb into the sea. Pelicans can reach speeds of forty miles per hour as they descend into the water to catch their favorite meal.The pouch below their beak, called a gular, can hold up to three gallons of water. The pelican tips back its head to remove the water before swallowing the fish. Truly a magnificent display of God’s genius.

 

     The pelican has an interesting connection to Christianity. A medieval legend tells of a pelican that had several chicks. The mother protected her little ones and gave them everything needed to live happily. However, the chicks were rebellious and often left their mother to pursue their own selfish interests. One day their renegade ways led them into harm’s way and they died.

 

     The mother pelican found her children and bitterly wept over their lifeless bodies. Hunched over in grief, she pierced her torso with her sharp beak. Droplets of blood trickled over the chicks, and as the mother breathed her final breath, each of the children came back to life. The mother’s death gave her offspring new life.

 

     The spilling of blood in both the Old and New Testaments held a powerful meaning. Blood was an expression for the transition from death to life. Consider Israel’s first Passover when blood was smeared on the lintels of Jewish homes. In this instance, blood marked the moment or season of transition between death and new life.

 

     The blood of Christ today offers a similar message of encouragement whose lives are languishing. The sacrifice of Jesus has the power to revive a marriage on life support or resurrect the hopes of an alcoholic or restore the purpose of one who has lost their sense of identity. As the hymn writer affirms:

 

Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood.

Would you o’er evil the victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood.
Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow,
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.